Billy Corgan finds salvation in a brand-new band

April 15, 2002|By Greg Kot, Tribune rock critic.

Billy Corgan's new band, Zwan, made its Chicago debut over the weekend at the Double Door, and despite protestations by the former Smashing Pumpkins singer that the band remains a work in progress, it sure didn't sound like one.

Zwan is already a juggernaut, a five-piece guitar army that differs in significant ways from Corgan's previous band, one of the most successful Chicago has ever produced, with more than 22 million albums sold before breaking up in 2000.

Ever since, Corgan has been writing songs at a prolific pace, and Zwan has evolved rapidly in a series of club shows since last summer. Each incarnation of the band and the songwriting has put greater distance between Zwan and its high-profile predecessor. Internet music files from previous shows certainly justified Corgan's work-in-progress concerns; the songs were hit or miss, the arrangements underdeveloped, the performances sometimes tentative. But in the first of three shows at the Double Door, Zwan demonstrated that it has found its voice, and it spoke loudly to an audience that already knew many of the words to Corgan's latest batch of songs.

It's almost as if Corgan broke up the Pumpkins just to experience this feeling again: the sound of a hungry band on the way up, inventing itself in public performance, stumbling a bit, and then suddenly arriving at that moment when all the gears mesh.

Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is a crucial holdover from the Pumpkins, and some would argue that the combination of his rhythmic attack and Corgan's nasal voice will ensure that Zwan will be another Pumpkins in everything but name. But the presence of three front-line guitarists -- Corgan, Matt Sweeney (formerly of the indie-rock outfit Chavez) and David Pajo (formerly of Slint and Tortoise) -- brought a wealth of new possibilities to the sound. And the band's newest addition, Paz Lenchantin (formerly of A Perfect Circle), is a bassist who is technically proficient enough to dance sonically with Chamberlin's sometimes overwhelming array of rolls and volleys.

If anything, Chamberlin has become an even better listener, accenting and punctuating Corgan's vocals like a jazz drummer. Lenchantin's bass also brought a distinctive new voice to the rhythm section, echoing the higher-octave melody lines of New Order's Peter Hook. The music veered from rampaging guitar opuses to lighter pop strolls. It could be blunt in its glam grandeur, as on "Baby Let's Rock," or it could be sophisticated, as when three independent guitar lines twisted like vines on "The World Goes 'Round." In either case, it was boldly and confidently executed, the attention to sonics never coming at the expense of melody. As much as the sound might have owed to guitar giants such as My Bloody Valentine and Live Skull, it was also pleasurable in the way the best pop singles must be.

These ambitions were apparent from the beginning with "Jesus, I," which began a 12-minute ebb-and-flow of guitar dramatics. "Reborn, reborn, reborn!" Corgan declared, before segueing into Bob Marley's "Exodus" and then a vision of the apocalypse: "God's gonna set this world on fire." As the hand claps accelerated, the guitars did too, suggesting a speed-metal gospel song.

Several of the songs carried similar religious references, tales of flawed characters seeking transcendence. The soulful "Rivers We Can't Cross" echoed Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross"; "The World Goes Round" examined a life built around the false allure of worldly possessions ("the things I want just keep me sinking down"); and the mournful "Love Lies in Ruin" suggested Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."

Some of these themes first started appearing on the latter-day Pumpkins albums, especially the underrated 1998 release, "Adore." For Corgan, the search for answers continues. As his music deepens, however, he seems in no particular hurry to become the introspective singer-songwriter or the weary balladeer who survived the alternative-rock wars of the '90s. Instead, he's found clarity in a new band that walks the path of all great rock 'n' roll: guitars, drums and the hum of loud amplifiers.